Apophthegmata Laconica

In answer to the man who was insistent that he establish a democracy in the State Lycurgus said, Do you first create a democracy in your own house. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 189 E (2), supra. )

When someone inquired why he ordained such small and inexpensive sacrifices to the gods, he said, So that we may honour the Divine powers without ceasing. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 172 B, supra. )

As he permitted the citizens to engage only in that kind of athletic contests in which the arm is not held up, [*](As a sign of defeat; Cf. E. Norman Gardiner, Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals, (London, 1910), p. 415.) somebody inquired what was the reason.

When someone asked why he ordered a frequent change of camping-place, he said,So that we may inflict greater injury upon our enemies. [*](Cf. Xenophon, Constitution of Sparta, 12. 5.)

When someone sought to know why he forbade assaults on walled places, he said, So that valiant men may not suffer death at the hands of a woman or a child or some such person. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Comparison of Lysander and Sulla, 477 D. As a matter of fact, the Spartans were quite without ability to attack a walled town, as is clear from Herodotus, ix. 70, and Thucydides, i. 102.)

When some of the Thebans advised with him in regard to the sacrifice and the lamentation which they perform in honour of Leucothea, he advised them that if they regarded her as a goddess they should not bewail her, but if they looked upon her as a woman they should not offer sacrifice to her as to a goddess. [*](This saying of Xenophanes seems to have been attributed by someone to Lycurgus. Cf. Moralia, 171 E, 379 B, and 763 C; also Aristotle, Rhetoric, ii. 23. 27.)

In answer to some of the citizens who desired to know, How can we keep off any invasion by enemies, he said, If you remain poor, and no one of you desires to be more important than another. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xix. (52 B).)

And at another time, when they raised a question about fortifications, he said that a city is not unfortified whose crowning glory is men and not bricks and stones. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 210 E (29), supra. )

The Spartans gave particular attention to their hair, recalling a saying of Lycurgus in reference to it,

He gave instructions that in war, when they had put the enemy to flight and had gained a victory, they should continue the pursuit only far enough to make their success assured, and then return immediately; for he said that it was neither a noble trait nor a Greek trait to slay those who had yielded, and this policy was not only honourable and magnanimous, but useful as well; for the opposing army, knowing that they customarily spared those who surrendered, but made away with those who resisted, would regard it as more profitable to flee than to stay. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xxii. (54 A); Thucydides, v. 73; Polyaenus, Strategemata, i. 16. 3.)

When somebody inquired why he forbade spoiling the enemy’s dead, he said, So that the soldiers may not, by looking about covertly for spoil, neglect their fighting, but also that they may keep to their poverty as well as to their post. [*](Cf.Moralia, 224 B (16), supra. )